Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Wish and Miracle Stones

I was tasked to collect
two different, but related, artifacts- a wish stone, and a miracle stone.

Of course, these
artifacts do not exist in reality, which is why I can discuss it with you.

On the surface, these
items work in the same way: while grasping the stone in your hands, you state
your desire, and it is fulfilled. Then it vanishes from your possession.

The difference between
a wish stone and a miracle stone is the difference between a wish and a
miracle.

A wish is
fundamentally a strong desire for something to happen; that something is not
impossible, but merely difficult or unlikely to occur.

A miracle is an impossibility
that has manifested itself.

A wish is a wish, and
a miracle is a miracle. It is not possible to perform a miracle, even with the power
of a wish stone.

Similarly, a miracle
stone cannot grant any wish.

Of course, from the perspective
of us humans, a miracle stone is far more powerful than a wish stone, and should
thus be able to duplicate the functions of a wish stone.

A saw is far more
capable of cutting wood than a knife, but just try carving wood with a saw.

The problem with
miracle and wish stones is that aside from their powers, they are utterly
impossible to distinguish. Not only do they share the same appearance, they share
the identical size, weight, texture, etc. Every single detail is the same, as
if they were manufactured from the same mystical source. One can easily mistake
a wish stone for a miracle stone, and vice versa.

It is not difficult to
see the problem here. The stone is used up when one states his desire to be
fulfilled. Whether the desire is realized is another matter altogether.

The difficulty of
finding even a single stone makes this a troublesome issue. One cannot simply
keep trying until they find a correct miracle or wish stone.

I have heard rumors of
someone asking for the ability to know the locations of every miracle stone.
Such an ability would enable him to tell the difference between a miracle stone
and a wish stone, which is an impossibility that can be granted by a miracle
stone. Another rumor tells of someone that asked to be able to find thousands
of stones, which is insanely difficult, but not impossible, and thus can be
granted using a wish stone.

Those rumors end with
them just having the wrong type of stone for their requests.

In fact, there are few
tales of someone successfully using a wish or miracle stone. The successful
stories are apocryphal at best.

I did, of course,
manage to complete my task, and deliver the required artifacts.

Of course, such a
thing is impossible, which is why I can tell you how I did it.

It simply isn’t very
difficult to acquire stones that vanish when spoken to.